The Curse of Culcraig recieved four cups from Coffeetime Romance Reviews.

“Romance and suspense are a plus in my book. Add to that a hunky man with an accent and ta da, you have The Curse of Culcraig. Fast paced excitement, not to mention steamy and sexy as well. Great characters balance this out into one read you should try.”

You can read the the entire review here.

The kid is back to school today, my neck seems to be better–touch wood–and I’m back to work. I’m sooo close to finishing Blood and Bone. It’s actually proving to be running a little longer than I’d anticipated. Still, I’m making it my top prority, so I should be done by the end of the week. Fingers crossed. As much trouble as this story has given me, I really do love the chemistry and conflict between these charaters.

Now, I’m off to get to work. See ya Wednesday.

Mood: Up

Music: I Alone, Live

Release Day is finally here! The Curse of Culcraig is out. And to celebrate I’m giving away a copy. Just leave a comment and I’ll draw a name. Easy, right? Since today is Friday, I’ll announce the winner on Monday.

In the meantime here is a new excerpt. I hope you’ll enjoy.

He rose and stood next to her while adding
cream and sugar to his coffee. She ignored his
suggestion to sit down—not that he was
surprised—returned the cream to the fridge
instead and brushed against his back as she did. A
shimmer of unseen energy tingled over his skin. He
turned and caught her hand to stop her from
moving away.
Her eyes went wide and dark like a forest lake.
He could have drowned in them. Her soft, powdery
scent with the barest hint of floral wrapped around
him, teasing his senses. He wanted to kiss her. To
press his mouth to her full, parted lips. To taste
her. She’d intrigued him from the start, and
wanting her had gnawed dully at the back of his
brain for days.

But having her this close, so that he could feel
her body’s heat mingling with his own…
The thud of the cream hitting the floor jarred
him from him his thoughts. He glanced down as
thick, white liquid glugged out over the stone slab.

“Damn it,” Hillary muttered, squatting and
righting the carton. “I’m not usually so clumsy.”

He snatched a dishtowel from the counter,
hunkered down beside her and started mopping
up the mess. “It doesnae matter.”

“The stone is porous.” She stood and soaked a
cloth at the sink, then returned to his side. “If the
cream soaks in, it’ll stink.”

He snorted. “What’s a wee bit of soured cream
compared to the usual dank, musty stink of the
place?”

She smiled, but didn’t look up from mess she
was wiping. Her hair fell across the delicate lines of
her jaw and cheekbone. His fingers itched to push
the silky strands away. Despite the benign
conversation, the tension from a few minutes ago
thickened rather than abated. He forced his gaze
back to the mess on the floor.

“That should be good enough,” she said, sitting
back on her haunches and eyeing the dark spot on
the stone. The faint jagged line of the scar on her
hand peeked out from the cloth, drawing his
attention. He’d noticed it before, and noticed the
way she shut down when he drew attention to the
mark.

As she stood, he did likewise, gripping her
hand once more. He took the wet towels from her
and tossed them into the sink, but didn’t release
her. Instead, he ran his thumb over the hardened
flesh marring her palm. Her hand fisted instantly.

“What happened?” he asked, lifting his gaze to
her wide, dark eyes. They looked huge against the
paleness of her skin.

“I cut it. Not a big deal.” A soft rasp edged her
voice.

“How? It looks like it was bad.”

She didn’t answer, but tried to tug free of his
grip. Instead of letting her go, he pulled her closer,
then, as though it were the most natural thing in
the world, he lowered his head and brushed his
lips over hers.

My nice little NaNo cushion has been all used up, and I’m behind there too.  Grrr. I’m going to see if I can catch up over the next day or so. Or maybe just return to my normal schedule and wrap up Blood and Bone. Hmm, tempting.

On the upside, my author copies of The Curse of Culcraig arrived on Friday.  And they look amazing. I’m so pleased. I’d hoped to post a pic, but that may have to wait until later in the week.

Now, I’m off to see if I can get myself organized and caught up. Wish me luck.

Mood: Grumpy

Music: Welcome to the Black Parade, My Chemical Romance

In other news, the contest at my editor’s blog starts today. The prize is a Kindle preloaded with with some great books, including Living Lies by yours truly. To enter, all you have to do is answer the scavenger hunt question and email your answer. I’m scheduled for the 25th.

I ordered my author copies of The Curse of Culcraig last week. The book should be available for pre-order very soon. I will certainly keep you posted.

The NaNo WIP continues to move well. By Friday, I’d hit over 29K putting me well ahead of schedule.  Last week, I even got some work done on Blood and Bone which was good. Three chapters and an epilogue left. I’ll be so glad when it’s done.

Off to work now. See you Wednesday.

Mood: Good

My editor at Samhain has announced a very cool contest with a great prize for later this month.  Also, I’ll be putting together a few contests of my own for the launch of The Curse of Culgraig. So keep checking back to learn more.

I just hit 19K and change on my NaNoWriMo story. Yay! The good thing about writing at a break neck speed, there’s no time for the self-doubt demon to pop up and tell me that my opening is dull or my characters are flat, or any of the other little nit-picks that would usually have me halting progress and going back to rework or scrapping it altogether. My daily work goal is 2K, double what I normally try to write in a day, and I’m thinking I may try to maintain it even after NaNo is over…but, we’ll see. Ask me again at the end of next week.  

 I’m neglecting Blood and Bone terribly, but I suspect I needed the break. I’m hoping I’ll be able to get a little more done this afternoon.

The counter and back splash has finally been installed in my kitchen. WooHoo!!! You remember my kitchen, don’t you? That renovation we started back in June, and we’re still working on. But the end is truly in sight. All that’s left is the baseboards and painting the kitchen chairs. And even without those things done my kitchen looks amazing. I promise I will post pics when it’s done.

Mood:  Up

Kind of sad that this was the most exciting thing to happen to me all weekend. I really need to spend less time at the computer, but I don’t see that happening for a while.

I received my galley for Curse last week and spent a fair amount of time reading through that. Very cool seeing the story as it will appear in print.

And speaking of print, Living Lies will be out in print in a mere two months, so between chapters of Curse I was working on promotion. Wow, that was time consuming. On the upside, I did manage to get a decent plan in place so putting it into effect should be easier. I’m certainly better organized than when the ebook came out.

Music: Mercy – Duffy
Mood: Up

The writing (crossing my fingers so I don’t jinx myself) is going fairly well. I’m actually seeing a significant dent in Blood and Bone and my word count for The Devil’s Eye has crept past 40K.

I had a my interview over the phone last week. I think it went fairly well. I did blank on my lead character’s name from The Curse of Clucraig. But I only ‘er’d’ and ‘um’d’ a couple of times before her name finally came to me. Oh, and the cat spilled my coffee all over my desk during the interview, right about the same time he was asking me if it’s glamorous being a writer. Snort! Pretty funny, huh?

Music: For No One – The Beatles

Mood: A little sleepy, actually. 

We put the tree up this weekend and watched Christmas Vacation for the first of what will inevitably be many, many times. I even did a little Christmas baking on Sunday. I must admit, Christmas is my favorite holiday. For someone who is not terribly sentimental, this love of all things Christmas is an odd contradiction to the rest of my personality. (Or perhaps I’m more sentimental than I realize.)

So I wound up 8k away from my 50k Nano word goal. I know I said I was giving up, but I was still kind of hoping. Oh well, I did better than I thought was going at the beginning of last week. As to the quality of the writing… Like any first draft there are some good parts and some, well, rough parts. Sigh. That’s what rewrites are for. Today, I really noticed the characters are not well fleshed out. So I’m debating whether I’ll go back to earlier chapters and dig a little deeper, or just keep going forward and fix it on the rewrite.  Hmm. Decisions, decisions.

I should finish up with Living Lies this week (hopefully, tomorrow) and I’m moving through edits for Curse fairly quickly.

And since I’m in such a Christmasy mood and Living Lies takes place at Christmas time, I’m thinking about putting together a contest. I’ll announce it next Monday so check back.

Mood: Happy.

Music: Winter Wonderland - Annie Lennox 

Here’s just a quick blurb to let you know what it’s about:

After a devastating personal tragedy cost history professor, Hillary Bennett, her job and her marriage, the promise of journals detailing the facts surrounding an apparent twentieth century witch-hunt could be exactly what she needs to rebuild her life. But when she arrives at Glendon House in the small Scottish village of Culcraig and finds her hostess, Agnes Douglas, dead at the bottom of the stairs, all of Hillary’s hopes come crashing down around her. Until Agnes’s attractive and infuriating heir offers her a deal she can’t refuse.

The last thing suspense writer, Caid Douglas, needs is a decrepit old manor house to look after, but he does need the money selling the house would bring. He offers to honor his great aunt’s arrangement with Hillary. She’ll pay him to stay at Glendon House and view the journals, and he’ll have the money to fix up the house. An ideal situation–provided he can ignore the heat igniting between them and keep his hands off of her. But Glendon House harbors a sinister secret behind its great, stone walls.

And a killer will stop at nothing to keep it.

I’ll post more details as I get them.

Music: Bulletproof – Blue Rodeo

Mood: Pretty Darn Good!